Bed Bath & Beyond Profit Falls 11%; Outlook Weak

(RTTNews) - Home goods retailer Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY) said Wednesday after the markets closed that its fourth quarter profit fell 11% from last year, as sales dropped 6%.

The company's quarterly earnings per share came in line with analysts' expectations, but its quarterly sales fell shy of analysts' forecast. At the same time, the company forecast first quarter earnings below analysts' current consensus estimate.

Bed Bath & Beyond shares are currently losing 3.92% in after hours trading after closing the day's regular trading session at $67.91, up 15 cents. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $62.12 to $80.82.

The Union, New Jersey-based company operates a chain of retail stores under the names of Bed Bath & Beyond, World Market, Cost Plus World Market, World Market Stores, Christmas Tree Shops, andThat!, Harmon, Harmon Face Values and buybuy BABY, selling a wide assortment of domestics merchandise and home furnishings. As of March 1, 2014, the company had a total of 1,496 stores, including 1,014 Bed Bath & Beyond stores.

For the fourth quarter ended March 1, 2014, the company reported net income of $333.3 million or $1.60 per share, compared to $373.9 million or $1.68 per share for the year-ago quarter.

On average, 24 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $1.60 per share for the fourth quarter.

Last month, the company lowered its fourth quarter earnings guidance to a range of $1.57 to $1.61 per share from its earlier guidance of $1.60 to $1.67 per share, citing harsh winter conditions.

Net sales for the fourth quarter fell 6% to $3.20 billion from $3.40 billion in the same quarter last year. Same-store sales for the fourth quarter increased 1.7%. Twenty analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $3.22 billion for the fourth quarter.

During the fourth quarter, the company repurchased about 7.5 million shares of its common stock for about $532 million. As of March 1, the remaining balance of the existing share repurchase program authorized in December 2012 was about $1.1 billion.

Looking forward, the company forecasts first quarter earnings of $0.92 to $0.96 per share. The company also said it expects full year fiscal 2014 earnings per share to increase by a mid-single digit percentage.

Analysts currently expect the company to earn $1.02 per share for the first quarter and $5.27 per share for the fiscal year 2014.

In February, Bed Bath & Beyond promoted Chief Financial Officer Eugene Castagna to the role of Chief Operating Officer. Susan Lattmann, formerly the company's Vice President - Finance, was promoted to Chief Financial Officer.